Welford Road these days is an even bigger ground to fill than it used to be. It was a few thousand shy of its capacity for this one and there was not a huge amount on the field here that might incline the ones that did turn up to come back again.

They will return, though, because they are mad about their team in this city, but at the moment they would be better entertained if they could sit back and enjoy a live feed to their director of rugby's press conferences. Richard Cockerill, now given his head after years as a right-hand man or caretaker coach, is on far better form than his players. He was in classic chest-beating mood after this workmanlike win over a side that have never won here.

There is not enough space to list here the names that he reeled off of first-choice players missing through injury for this game. Suffice it to say there were 10, seven of them full internationals and the other three England A internationals.

"You tell me one squad in the world who wouldn't be happy with just winning after that much quality taken out of it," he said. "There isn't one team in the Premiership who could lose that many bodies of that quality and keep on winning. We're the only side that can do it."

So there. It is a crippling injury list, though, and that has to be borne in mind before more darts are thrown at Leicester over how try shy they have become.They registered one here , their third ofthe season – a ho-hum rolling maul that Lewis Moody finished in the corner to help them to a 13-9 lead at the break – but, if they are struggling for fluency and penetration, see Cockerill for at least 10 reasons why.

Not that these things are taken into account when the points are totted up. Aaron Mauger and Harry Ellis should be back for the visit of the star-studded Ospreys next weekend (they will surely sell the place out for that one), but now is not a bad time to be visiting Welford Road.

If you do see Cockerill, it will indeed be more than 10 reasons he gives you for their lack of fluency. He was more than happy to give the referee both barrels for not rewarding sides that try to play rugby.

"Worcester gave away 15 penalties today, the majority in their own half, and nothing gets done," he said. "It starts to get frustrating for teams that want to play. Things get a little fragmented and a little ruined by the official. Worcester came here to try and spoil us. You saw how with a minute left they maul it and kick it out to get the bonus point. It's hard when sides come with that mind-set. But fair play to them — they came, they got a point. If they're happy with that, fair enough."

In further fairness to Worcester, though, the referee penalised Leicester almost as much. It was a masterclass in incessant whistling by Chris White. The other notable feature of the game was how both teams played their best rugby when playing into the stiff breeze. Leicester dominated the entire first half and were set fair to take it away in the second, but Worcester then dominated, with Tom Wood's try briefly securing them the lead. They could dominate for only most of the second half, though, not all of it, and the final quarter of an hour belonged to Leicester, hence the deserved win.